A smart salute from a crusty ole Marine!
Semper Fidelis,
Norb
Posted on 10/08/2001 4:36:03 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
By Journalist 1st Class Joseph Gunder, Navy News Service
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 touched everyone in America, one way or another. Ensign Daniel Campos, stationed in Annapolis, Md., watched as thousands of Americans were killed on live television, and took note of the subsequent sacrifices by firefighters and rescue workers.
He decided on a unique way to pay tribute. A World Trade Center relay, where runners would carry the American flag from the Pentagon all the way to the site of the World Trade Center, would be an appropriate way to rally the American spirit to honor to the victims. Runners would pass the American flag to each other all along the route, all 250-plus miles.
According to the Campos, the purpose behind the run was threefold:
Campos figured that it would take two days at a runner's pace to cover the distance from the Pentagon to the WTC site if they ran all day and night.
He asked fellow ensigns, Christine Fix and Jon Durham for help. They were able to rally enough volunteers, more than 60, to break the journey into 40-mile blocks, with about seven or so runners in each "wave." A chase van would carry the non-runners until a relief van could catch up with a fresh group.
The primary flag was obtained from the office of the Secretary of the Navy in the Pentagon. It was a rather large version, with gold trim and a wooden pole. A second, lighter flag with an aluminum pole was also used for the long distance travel.
Fix planned the route so the runners wouldn't take any major thoroughfares. However, the course of the run would take the runners through two major cities before New York: Baltimore and Philadelphia.
The group took off at 6 a.m. Friday, Sept. 28, about an hour before sunrise.
By Saturday morning, the runners made it up to Philadelphia. A policeman pulled alongside in his cruiser and asked what they were doing. Once the police discovered where the runners were headed, an escort was immediately arranged and the runners were put on a more direct route.
The runners got lots of attention in the City of Brotherly love and beyond.
"Wherever we went, policemen, firemen would all stop and salute us," said Fix. "People along the route were coming out of their shops to check us out. Riders on their motorcycles were saluting us."
The group of runners ended up with police escorts from Philadelphia all the way through New Jersey to their final destination.
"When we passed from one jurisdiction to another, the police would radio ahead and turn us over to the next escort," explained Fix. "We had a police escort pretty much all the way into New York City."
"I'll never forget the show of support from everybody," wrote Jan Waters, an Annapolis resident who ran along with her military neighbors. "People giving words of encouragement, hollering 'God Bless America.' There were even groups who starting singing 'America the Beautiful' when I went by."
"The show of support was unreal," wrote Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Rich Moesch. "The horns blowing, the sirens, people cheering, the thanks from all of the people in New York was just unreal."
After passing through the Holland Tunnel and into Manhattan around 6 p.m. Saturday, the runners and police escorts stopped at the berth of USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), where they presented the lighter flag to the commanding officer of the ship.
An hour later, they were off again, this time with some extra runners from Comfort. Nothing, not even Hollywood, could prepare the runners for what they found when the finally arrived at the site of the former World Trade Center.
"We all were just shocked," said Fix when the runners got to the WTC site. "It's like nothing you've seen on TV. It was so much more devastating then we had seen. It was kind of surreal."
Fix continued, "The firemen were quite honored to see us. They took us past the barricades and right to their firehouse by the Trade Center. They showed us the remainder of a fire truck, which was little more than a door. We all stopped and had a moment of silence for the people that were lost."
"I thought it was the greatest thing in the world," said John Bambury, New York Fire department's deputy fire chief, who was at "ground zero" when the runners presented him with the flag from the Pentagon. "Our spirits were really low. We lost so many men. This helped boost our morale."
The runners also got a morale boost by helping to stir a wave of patriotism during one of the darkest times in American history.
Ensign Jack Kruse was also along for the run. He stopped at the WTC site to chat with one of the weary firefighters.
"So, what kind of hours do they have you working here at ground zero?" Kruse asked.
The firefighter paused for a minute and answered, "You know, they've stopped calling it 'ground zero.' It's now 'ground hero.'"
As for working hours, Kruse found out that some of the firefighters have been working for 24 hours straight -- removing rubble and remains, trying to account for the thousands still missing.
"You can just see it in their eyes," said Kruse. "They're tired. These guys come here day after day and dig through rubble. It encouraged me as a person and member of the military, if these guys can come in here and work in this pit everyday, then we should be able to give 110 percent of ourselves everyday."
For more information about different ways to contribute to the relief efforts, go to http://www.libertyunites.org. Off-site link
By Naval Postgraduate School Public Affairs
MONTEREY, Calif. (NNS) -- Secretary of the Army Thomas White and Secretary of the Air Force James Roche joined Vice Adm. T. Michael Bucchi, commander of the 3rd Fleet, at the Naval Postgraduate School recently to reaffirm that the unique technological and analytical education provided by the Navy's corporate university is now more important than ever in the new global war against terrorism.
The joint occasion was the 50th anniversary of the school's move from Annapolis, Md., to Monterey, Calif., and graduation ceremonies for its Summer 2001 class. White and Roche are both NPS graduates in operations research.
In a keynote address to the graduating class -- the future senior military leaders of all the U.S. military services and 14 allied nations -- White challenged them "to make history, not just read about it" in the "first war of the 21st Century."
"Why is an NPS education so important?" the Army secretary asked. "Because the unique technological and analytical disciplines offered here at the Postgraduate School are a critical part of each service's investment in its human capital, which has been paying huge dividends, for 50 years here in Monterey alone.
"Now, more than ever, America needs the best of our conceptual thinkers, because the first war of the 21st Century, which we are embarked upon, will not be fought like the last war of the 20th Century," White said. "The analytical skills you have honed here at NPS must now be focused on a new threat -- one that does not fit the classic Cold War model that we worried about when I was a student. How the U.S. responds to these changing dynamics will determine the relative peace and security of the 21st Century."
"America is engaged in a worldwide campaign to defeat the enemies of civilization, not just the enemy of our country," White stressed. "The coalitions that we are crafting to win this new war of the 21st Century will not be fixed. Rather, they will change and they will evolve. As a result, relationships and alliances will likely be rearranged over the coming years. You who are graduating here today will play an active part in those rearrangements."
"We believe this is an historic occasion, certainly for the Naval Postgraduate School, but also for California, to have two service secretaries visiting simultaneously," said Dr. Richard Elster, NPS Provost.
NPS Superintendent Rear Adm. David R. Ellison and Elster presented White and Roche with distinguished alumnus awards, and announced that NPS has instituted a hall of fame, naming them as its first members
A smart salute from a crusty ole Marine!
Semper Fidelis,
Norb
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